


maybe canoeing isn't so bad

by otayuriistheliteralbest



Series: YOI Ship Bingo [2]
Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Fluff and Humor, M/M, Mutual Pining, Nature, otayuri - Freeform, yoi ship bang
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-23
Updated: 2017-09-23
Packaged: 2019-01-04 12:52:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,165
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12169251
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/otayuriistheliteralbest/pseuds/otayuriistheliteralbest
Summary: “This is a horrible idea and we are going to die.”Otabek laughed at Yuri’s deadpan pronouncement. “We are NOT going to die, Yuri. It's a boat, and we're taking it on the lake.”“It's not a boat - boats have motors and big comfy seats and canopies and, and… hulls?” He said the last word uncertainly. After all, his scarce boat knowledge came from movies and the one cruise he had been on as a small child.





	maybe canoeing isn't so bad

“This is a horrible idea and we are going to die.”

Otabek laughed at Yuri’s deadpan pronouncement. “We are _not_  going to die, Yuri. It's a boat, and we're taking it on the lake.”

“It's not a boat - boats have motors and big comfy seats and canopies and, and… hulls?” He said the last word uncertainly. After all, his scarce boat knowledge came from movies and the one cruise he had been on as a small child.

Otabek rolled his eyes at Yuri and lifted the last of their bags into the canoe. He made a mental checklist, making sure they had everything they needed and nodded to himself.

“You'll be fine, Yura,” Otabek reassured him, giving the other man a quick hug. “I'll be doing most of the work, you just need to steer.”

“If you say so…” Yuri said, eyeing the wooden canoe like it was going to sprout arms and legs and attack him.

“Come on, get in the front of the boat and I'll push us off,” Otabek told him. It had been Otabek’s idea to rent the canoe, but Yuri _had_ agreed to it when he suggested it. Otabek learned to canoe when he lived in the United States and his host family owned a cabin by a lake. It had been a few years, but he remembered most of what he needed to do.

Yuri looked silly, wearing a giant orange life jacket wrapped around his torso, but Otabek didn't want to take any chances that his best friend would fall in and drown. Yuri gingerly stepped into the canoe and immediately almost face-planted as the boat wobbled on the water. He found his footing, red-faced, and finally settled into his seat.

_This is_ so _not cool,_ Yuri thought, _I’m just going to embarrass myself or tip over the boat and we’re going to drown because we’re going to be stuck in the middle of a damn lake._

Yuri gave Otabek the thumbs-up to say he was ready, and Otabek began to push the canoe the rest of the way into the water. When it was free of the bank he hopped in, making Yuri yelp at the rocking of the boat.

“Yep, we’re dead. We’re going to die and I’m never going to see Puma Tiger Scorpion again,” Yuri moaned, grasping the handle of his paddle like it was the only thing that would save him.

Otabek chuckled at this pronouncement and picked up his paddle to push them the rest of the way off the bank of the lake.

“Don’t worry so much, Yuri,” Otabek told him. “Now follow my lead, you’ll have to feel for the direction the canoe is going.”

They floundered for a while at the edge of the lake until Yuri figured out how to switch his paddle back and forth in the water to make them move forward, but he finally got the hang of it and they made their way slowly around a bend in the lake and took a break, floating out in the middle of the water.

Yuri leaned back, stretching sore muscles in his back and making his spine pop with a satisfied sigh.

“Ahh, that’s better,” Yuri murmured to himself. He leaned back against the bench in the middle of the boat, arms crossed over his eyes to block out the bright sunlight that broke through the clouds.

Otabek grinned and grabbed a water from the cooler in the middle of the canoe, taking a long gulp from the bottle. Canoeing was much harder than he had remembered, but he was glad that he quickly recalled the basics enough to help them steer the ungainly vessel.

He nudged Yuri’s shoulder with his foot to get the other man’s attention. “Want a water, Yuri?”

“Hmm?” Yuri made a noise, uncovering one eye to look up at Otabek.

“I said, do you want a water? While we’re taking a break.”

“Oh, yeah, sure. Thanks, Beka.” Yuri sat up gingerly, barely disturbing the canoe with his movements, and turned to sit cross-legged facing Otabek. He accepted the water Otabek held out to him and chugged it until the bottle was empty.

“Ahh, much better,” Yuri said with a grin. “Where to now? Is there a good place to get off the canoe and explore?”

Otabek blinked, breaking himself of the image of Yuri’s grin. “Uh, yeah. Yes, there is. We still have a little way to go, but I remember there being a flat meadow up ahead.”

Yuri rolled his shoulders with a sigh and picked his paddle back up, glancing over his shoulder at Otabek with a smile.

“Sounds great, let’s get to it!” he said cheerfully.

Otabek had to blink a couple of times before he picked up his own paddle again. They steadily made their way across the lake and around another bend, and there was the meadow Otabek remembered from before he moved to the United States to train. Trees surrounded the field, shielding it from the view of the outside world, the start of a massive forest, and wildflowers studded the ground in patches of pinks and yellows and whites.

Yuri’s eyes sparkled at the sight, making Otabek’s heart thump almost painfully in his chest. Otabek had realized only in the past year that he felt something more for Yuri than a _best friend_ should. He didn’t want to ruin what they had, but sights like this made him want to wrap Yuri up in his arms and pepper his face with sweet kisses.

The canoe bumped up against the edge of the field, breaking Otabek from his distracted thoughts, and he hopped out into the shallow water to haul it the rest of the way to shore. Yuri yelped when Otabek tugged at the boat, not expecting him to pull it up while he was still sitting inside it.

“Watch it, Beka! I almost fell in,” Yuri said, pouting. It made the corners of Otabek’s eyes crinkle in silent laughter and he offered his hand to the other man.

“Come on, Yura, let’s get this kitten back on solid land,” Otabek teased.

The blonde blushed and looked away from Otabek, murmuring, “Don’t call me kitten.” He grabbed the proffered hand and leapt out of the canoe, making it rock briefly before settling again on the banks of the meadow.

Yuri rushed to take off the bright orange life jacket and tossed it behind him into the canoe. He didn’t want to waste any time and started to explore the meadow. It was rather simple in its beauty, the sun shining in dappled patterns through the tree canopy to the grass below. The blonde stuffed his hands in his jeans pockets, slowing to admire everything around him.

Yuri took a deep breath of air; this was nothing like Almaty, like St. Petersburg, or any of the cities he visited in his professional career. There was a warmth and sweetness to the scent in the air that Yuri didn’t fully understand, but he wanted more of it. He wanted that scent to surround him.

Yuri tilted his head so that he could look at his best friend over his shoulder. Otabek was pulling a picnic basket that he had prepared the night before from the canoe, rearranging the rest of the items in the little boat to ensure they wouldn’t budge, and triumphantly pulled a blanket from the bottom of the boat with a cry of success. Yuri snorted at Otabek, bent over the boat and sweaty. A lock of hair had fallen from his perfect coif to fall in his face, which looked almost endearing to Yuri. He smiled at the sight.

“Hey Beka, are you joining me or not?” Yuri asked. “Let’s walk around for a bit before we do anything else, yeah?”

Otabek looked down at the picnic basket and blanket in his hands and gave Yuri a crooked smile, setting them down on the ground away from the water. It wasn’t like the food was going anywhere anyway, and they were the only ones at the secluded lake.

“Yeah sure, let’s go have a wander around,” Otabek replied. “You pick the way, Yura.”

Yuri nodded his head in the direction he had been heading earlier, and the pair walked through the field, careful not to step on the flowers if they could avoid it, and enjoyed silently walking together into the woods.

The sun speckling Otabek’s arms and face was distracting to Yuri, and he found himself constantly glancing back at the other man to stare at him.

Yuri thought he was being smooth about sneaking peaks of Otabek, but clearly he wasn’t as good as he thought. They were rounding a giant tree when he felt arms wrap around him from the side, and Yuri yelped before he realized who it was.

“Don’t do that to me, Beka!” Yuri said, smacking the back of his hand against Otabek’s chest. Yuri had grown in the past couple of years, and was a little bit taller than the other man now. “That was very annoying, you know.”

Otabek laughed in a rumbling chortle that seemed to float over the two of them in the hushed air.

“Well, you kept looking over at me, I just couldn’t resist,” Otabek said, releasing Yuri from his hold with a pang of regret. He had enjoyed the feeling of the blonde in his arms, but he shook it off to point back in the direction of the meadow with his thumb. “I can set up the picnic blanket, did you want some lunch?”

Yuri’s stomach gave a definitive _growl_ at the mention of lunch. They paused, looking at each other in shock, and then burst out laughing. Yuri wiped laughter-tears from his eyes, one hand on his stomach.

“I think that answers your question. What did you bring?” The blonde asked, curious.

They walked back over to where Otabek had set down the picnic blanket and basket of food before joining Yuri on his exploration of the meadow. The two spread the blanket and settled down onto it. Otabek plucked open the basket’s lid to reveal a thermos of tea and sandwiches. It was simple, but he hadn’t wanted anything he made to get ruined in the boat. He handed one wrapped sandwich to Yuri and bit into the other with gusto.

Yuri snorted and rolled his eyes at the image of his badass best friend sitting cross-legged on a floral blanket in a meadow chowing down on a sandwich. The blonde bit into his own sandwich, his stomach grumbling appreciatively as the flavor hit his tongue. Yuri looked back up to Otabek at the noise and became utterly distracted.

His friend had put some kind of white sauce into the sandwiches, and for some reason failed to notice as a trail of the sauce dripped from the corner of his mouth and down his chin. Yuri was captivated by it and didn’t even realize that he had set down his sandwich and leaned over to Otabek until the pad of his thumb was brushing against the other man’s face.

Otabek looked shocked at first. A rush of thoughts tumbled through his mind until he noticed the flush across Yuri’s cheeks that was rapidly spreading down the blonde’s neck and under his loose tank top to his chest. In a split-second decision, Otabek tilted his head to capture the thumb on his cheek in his mouth, sucking the sauce it had swiped away. He glanced up at Yuri’s face to gauge his reaction, and witnessed the other man’s eyelids fluttering shut. A little gasp escaped Yuri’s lips, and so Otabek continued to suck on the other man’s thumb, showing Yuri just what he would like to do to another part of his body, if he would let him.

Yuri pounced on Otabek, straddling his lap and cradling his jaw with one delicate hand.

“May I?” Yuri asked timidly. He was tracing Otabek’s parted lips with one finger, and Otabek groaned in response.

“Yes, _please_ ,” he murmured, and a split second later Yuri’s lips were crashing against his, frantic and messy and tasting of cold cuts and bread, but also so perfect at the same time. Otabek wrapped his arms around Yuri’s waist, tugging him close in his lap and making Yuri squeak.

Otabek broke away from the kiss, smiling against Yuri’s lips. He rested his forehead against the blonde’s, relishing in the moment. His heart was pounding frantically - though he was nervous, Otabek couldn’t have been more sure of something being so _right_ in his life.

“Okay, maybe canoeing isn’t so bad after all,” Yuri murmured against Otabek’s lips, making the other man laugh and hug him tight.

“Good,” Otabek said. He flipped them over on the blanket and left a trail of feather-light kisses on Yuri’s eyelids, cheeks, chin, lips, making the other man bubble over with laughter. _Yeah_ , Otabek thought, _maybe canoeing isn’t so bad_.


End file.
